dec and jan catch all [closed]

[shikomizue]

Who: Takasugi Shinsuke (shikomizue) & various
What: Catch-all for December / January
When: Throughout December / January
Where: Thesa, will edit as necessary
Warning(s): Alcohol use, Drug use, probably some PTSD/vivid war flashbacks, graphic violence

[Individual starters in the comments!]

Comments

[unprays]

[ she watches, and waits. waits for a familiar sight, a faint hope that she might see her brother amongst those who run to the ships made of metal — a part of her still hopes that Robb isn't sleeping.

(it's a very small part; any hope she has left is burning out like a candle.)

she makes no attempt to approach anyone who is heading to the ships. there is nothing she can offer them, no expertise, no knowledge. the ships are shining and alien to her, and she watches them both with fascination and suspicion.

at least until the man who has stood there for a long time finally speaks to her. ]

Beautiful? [ she echoes, like she hasn't even thought of it. ] ... no. But they are impressive. [ untrustworthy, she thinks, weird and scary and powerful. she had found the dragons beautiful — these metallic ships are too neat, too technological for her to find beauty in them. ]

[shikomizue]

[The girl sounds more distant than the stars surrounding them; nothing could have made Takasugi vest his interest more immediately. He turns from the rows of vessels to the girl more squarely, smile placid.]

They'll stop looking that way soon. [Just as the rich clouds of nebulous color in space have long since ceased to be wondrous.]

You should catch a ride before all of the novelty wears off. [Standing and watching them come and go, one might start seeing the ships as insects swarming a hive.]

[unprays]

Doesn't everything?

[ stop looking like that — wonderful, amazing, impressive. no matter whether it is beautiful gowns, or the high walls of the capital, or well-bred horses: in the end, all you see is a mask, an armor and a weapon — a cage.

the ships look impressive to her now, but already she thinks what their true purpose must be, whether they are only fancier vessels that one takes into battle. ]

... no. I would be of little use, there. [ but she's hesitating, her teeth biting into her lower lip as she glances at yet another ship leaving the station. what is it like, to be out there, a boat in an endless, dark ocean? ]

[shikomizue]

[He hums in agreement, the deep sound almost lost in the whir of a ship's engine as it idles in place. Everything looses its luster, everything becomes either dull or dangerous, so there's nothing to do but to take reckless risks.

In pursuit of only a flash of beauty. A glimmer of freedom.]

There's nothing you're needed for. [Navigation is simple enough, once the necessity of emotional management is understood. But he won't prattle on about the practicality of a trip - that it's possible isn't what makes it alluring.]

Might as well be bored out there, if you're going to be bored.

[He shrugs.] The stars look quite different when you're among them.

[unprays]

I'm not bored, [ she responds, a little sharply, as though the implication is insulting — and yet, isn't it closer to the truth than she'd like to admit? as strange as the things they have here are, as different from home... everything is so much less complicated, here.

a good thing and a bad thing, at once, because when you're trained to expect tragedy, peace is more nerve-wracking than anything else.

after a pause, she nods. ] Fine. I suppose I could see what it's like, there.

thats called ptsd sansa

[shikomizue]

[It rings petulant to Takasugi, a tone not amusing in its childishness but in its proximity to his own memory - he might have responded in kind, years and years ago.

He's never cared for peace, now less than ever. But he's not surrendered to the idea that war has been taken from him along with his homeland.

The stars are vast, after all.]

Alright. [And that's all he says, turning to walk towards one of the ships with the assumption - confidence - that she'll follow.

When he arrives he climbs to the hull only to open the cockpit.] Go ahead. [He'll follow after - best to let first experiences go first.]